Joan Rivers talks of Vegas entertainment — and F-bombs before the Queen

By John Katsilometes

Wednesday, April 7, 2010 | 4:11 p.m.

Joan Rivers is a member of her apartment building's resident association in Manhattan.

She's the president, actually, of this HOA-type organization, and on this day the group had to tell a tenant to either pay fees or move out.

"It's a small building, a fabulous building, and I've lived here 20 years," she says during a midmorning phone call. "I've lived here 20 years, and after living here that long they came to me. I'm one of the longer tenants now. It's not always pleasant, but it is my turn to do it."

Rivers, performing stand-up Thursday through Saturday at The Venetian, would not call herself the "queen" of this group, which somehow leads us to one of the more monumental appearances in her 50-year career.

When asked which performance or appearance she's most proud of, Rivers says, "Probably one of my Royal (Variety) Performances in England, for the queen," she says, chuckling. "I broke the barrier. I was the first to say 'f***' in front of the queen."

It was at the July 2007 show. As Rivers recalls, she was onstage, rolling through a bit where she was joking about the glut of international charities, and said, "There's even a charity for osteoporosis! That's f-ing crazy! ... Oh my God!" One report was that Rivers used 13 profanities in that show (once clapping her hand over her mouth after saying, "My f-ing body ...") but today, as then, she says the royal family was OK with her adult stage tenor that night at the Liverpool Empire Theatre.

"Prince Philip came up to me after and said, 'It's OK, it's OK!' " Rivers recalls. "The royal family has a great sense of humor."

The event was a long distance — in terms of time and location — from the Flamingo Showroom, where Rivers made her Las Vegas debut in 1970, where she opened for Charles Aznavour and Bobby Darin. "I was an opening act for everybody in those days," she says. "But I love the choices you have in Las Vegas today. In those days, you came to see a star, Sammy Davis, Ann-Margret, Sinatra, it was all stars. Now you can see a Broadway show, you can see me, you can see some major person in concert. There are so many more choices — Blue Man Group, Phantom, Jersey Boys, me doing plain-old stand-up, and that's just at the Venetian. Amazing."

Rivers has for years been tied to Vegas entertainment with her long-ago partnership with Clint Holmes, who was the emcee of her short-lived talk show that helped launch the Fox network in 1986 (remember when a fourth major network seemed a totally preposterous concept?).

"Clint? Oh! He's just amazing!" she says. "Some people you work with, you knew they should be headliners. Garry Shandling was one, and Clint Holmes."

Rivers also was linked, in a different sort of way, to longtime "La Cage" frontman/woman Frank Marino. About 25 years ago Rivers sued Marino, who long performed a spot-on impression of the comedy icon, as part of his show, for using her material as part of his act.

"Frank Marino? He used to come to my act and take material," she says. "We'd say, 'Take stuff I don't use. We'll give it to you. Just don't use what we are using in the act. We had words, but 20 that was years ago. It's fine, now. We're fine. I don't worry about stuff that happened 20 years ago."

More from the note bin

• Talking to Rivers, my mind flashed in the strangest way on "The Electric Company." Remember the animated vignette, "The Adventures of Letterman?" She was the narrator! I have to ask about this. ...

• Word from Team Newton: Wayne Newton has been offered to take a version of his stage show to Broadway immediately after it closes at the Trop at the end of the month, but instead he's committed to a role in the film "40 West," which starts shooting soon after "Once Before I Go" closes. Also, last Wednesday I caught the "sizzle reel" for the upcoming reality project starring Newton and his family. No final title yet, "Wayne's World" is what it's being called for the moment, but it is being planned for WE and is to focus on the women in Newton's family. His 7-year-old daughter, Lauren, has had to be told not to address the camera directly, but the others are handling their respective roles as seasoned pros ...

• By glad chance, I ran into Carrot Top at the Las Vegas Wranglers-Utah Grizzlies ECHL playoff encounter at Orleans Arena. Topper — and lord, is this guy busy — just shot the pilot for the CBS sitcom "The Odds," starring "Scrubs" alum Donald Faison and Australian actor Sullivan Stapleton ("Satisfaction," "The Secret Life").

As Carrot Top (real name: Scott Thompson) said, "I play myself. I'm an informant." Which led to:

Me: "So, you 'drop dime' on people?"

Him: "I don't know what that means. What's that mean?"

Me: "I'm not exactly sure."

Him: "Well, they want me back as a recurring character."

We all wound up having dinner at Capo's on West Trop, and as I tweeted from the site, Capo's is one of the Italian restaurants I prefer to Olive Garden.

• Another quickie from PuckLand: That 1,882 attendance figure from the Wranglers-Grizzlies playoff opener at Orleans Arena was the smallest ever for the Las Vegas ECHL team, which started play in 2003. As team President Billy Johnson said, the Wranglers didn't learn until Saturday when it would open the playoffs, and attendance has been curtailed by the crummy economy all season. Too bad there's not enough time to dial up a midnight playoff game at The Orleans, shake things up a little. Or is there?

Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at twitter.com/JohnnyKats.